Review: Bragi Headphone Wireless Earbuds

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Review: Bragi Headphone Wireless Earbuds

Bragi

Ambition is the enemy of success. At least if you're Bragi, the headphone maker whose first product, the Dash, did a thousand things without doing any of them particularly well. The Dash in-ear headphones slash head-mounted computer tried to tackle fitness, translation, gesture control, mixed-reality audio, and more. Which all might have been fine, except the Dash could barely hold a Bluetooth connection long enough to finish a song.

This time Bragi's back with a pair of headphones that do a lot of headphone things and not much else. As if to prove the point beyond all doubt, they're even called The Headphone. For $149, these truly wireless earbuds pop out of their charging case and into your ears, where they'll connect to almost any device. And, praise be, they tend to stay connected. The Headphone may not be the ear-puter of the future, but it's a perfectly good set of truly wireless headphones. And that's no small feat.

WIRED

If you've never spent a day with truly wireless earbuds, you're missing out. The Headphone, like a lot of the good models in this space, are just small and light enough that you forget they're there. Eventually it feels like beautiful music is just playing inside your head. The quarter-sized Headphone buds are much easier to hide or disguise than the long AirPods or the large Beats Solo. They fit snugly in my ears, and the tips create a nice seal. (You should experiment a bit, though, to find which of the included options fits best in your ears.) Bluetooth connection is solid, if not quite flawless yet.

Once you get them working, these buds have reasonably dynamic, powerful sound, certainly more than I expected from a gizmo this small. Their neat audio-transparency feature lets you decide how much real-world sound you want to hear, You control playback with three buttons on the right earbud, which takes some getting used to but is much easier than the Dash's inscrutable set of swipes and taps.

TIRED

Connecting the Headphone via Bluetooth is as simple as any pair of headphones, even if doesn't have the one-touch magic of the new Apple devices. The Headphone's battery doesn't always hold up to the advertised six hours, and because the case doesn't double as a charger you're hosed if even one bud dies while you're out. And oh, by the way, they don't turn off when you put them in the case. I learned this the hard way.

It can be awkward to know where to put these headphones when they're not in your ear, which is why Bragi put the case on a lanyard so you can have it with you always. (Don't wear the case, folks.) The membrane buttons don't click, they smush. All of the Headphone's parts, from the case to the buds themselves, feel a little cheaper than I'd like from a $150 set of earphones. Like the Dash, the Headphone's microphone isn't even good enough to dictate text messages accurately. They're water-resistant enough for a run, but not a swim.

RATING

7/10 - Their build doesn't inspire much confidence, and some of the advanced tech needs some work, but The Headphone proves this kind of truly wireless earbud really can work.